Letters from Victims of President Obama’s Child Prisons.

by Bryan Johnson on March 7, 2015

As we have made clear in the past, the accounts our clients have given demonstrate that the U.S. government is committing serious crimes against several hundred children and mothers in its children jails located in Texas and Pennsylvania.

Recently, ENDDetention released a list of 13 letters from Mothers who have been detained for several months in the Karnes County Jail.

The letters contain evidence of crimes against children. Below are the relevant excerpts from mothers desperate at the harm their children are suffering in our jails.

I need help because I am worried; my son…is 12 years old. He’s in bad health he is at risk for diabetes and I can’t give him the diet he needs while in here.The doctor also told me he needs to drink a lot of water. However, there is a lot of chlorine in the water….I have few resources; I don’t have the money to be able to buy him purified water which they sell at the commissary…He no longer wants the horrid food they give us in here. He doesn’t eat anymore.

I’m worried, because my daughter is losing weight, because she doesn’t eat...I’m worried, because she could get sick…Please help us. I have already been in detention for seven months. My daughter is desperate, and so am I. The water has bleach in it, and I don’t have money to buy water from the store.

I am here with My son, who is 10 years old…They don’t give us medicine when we are sick.When we go to the doctor we have to wait for two hours or more, and when we are seen [by the doctor], they tell us to only drink a lot of water. They never have medicine for headaches, stomachache, body ache, fever and cough. There is not good attention here [at Karnes].

I can’t stand to be here anymore. I am desperate, I don’t like the food anymore, and I don’t want to be here. My son’s first birthday was here.

We have been in detention at the Karnes County Residential Center for six months. I need you to help me please, we suffer so much here, and my children do not like the food.

We are very sick. I do not like the physicians. They do not tell us the types of medicines they give us.Things happen here that worry us mothers and our children.

We have been detained for 7 months in the Karnes County Residential Center. And my children can no longer tolerate being detained. They do not like the food. It has already been a lot of time.

My children don’t eat because the food is terrible, the water when we drink makes our stomachs hurt and we get bloated. When I take some of my children to the doctor, it takes a long time for them to see the children, after an hour and a half they see us and tell the mother, “give him water”. If a child goes with diarrhea, they give him 2 bananas, and that is all. My son, 3 years old, has a problem with his eyes, he has been there months and they tell me, wash his eyes with warm water and apply a paste they gave me, but it does not work… My children ask me: “What is wrong mama, why don’t we leave?” I ask that you help us. We are not a threat for this country, all I want is refuge in this country for my children and for me.

Also we are afraid because of the Abuse of Power on the Part of I.C.E. They try to cover up everything that is happening here inside. For example:

A pregnant mother had left from here. A young boy was sexually abusedand the worst is that we don’t know if they deported him or sent him to another center.

We have been here for 7 months. The children don’t want to eat. They are desperate. We need help, that someone outside fight for us so we can be freed.

I have been here since August 6, 2014, and whenever my daughter has a fever or feels sick for any reason at all, the only thing the doctors prescribe is water and apple juice.The food is always badly prepared and makes our stomach hurt. The worst thing is that a woman was raped by a GEO official and is pregnant. A Guatemalan guy was also raped in his own room. I myself was a victim of one of these officials who promised marriage to me.

In the beginning you eat the food, but later you don’t anymore, because it’s always the same. For example, for breakfast they give you eggs and bread and cereal, and most of us kids don’t eat the meal.

When someone is really sick, or feels bad, and goes to the doctor, they just give you an acetaminophen, or if not that, they tell you to drink enough water, but most of the time, they ignore you. Almost all of the babies get sick with colds or infections. Then the only thing they tell you is to run hot water in the shower, and they’ll breathe in the steam (supposedly that’s a treatment), but it’s more likely they are taking in a parasite, and get even sicker. A baby has to have a temperature of 104 before they will give you [cough] syrup or acetaminophen.

Children are literally wasting away in the President’s baby jails. These are serious crimes that are ongoing. It is time that President Obama be held accountable for being responsible for the harm these children have and continue to suffer because of his brutal creation of jails that are unfit–indeed, unlicensed–to care for children.

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